Lab Weekly - 01/02/2024
CES early preview: hypes vs. reality; Plus, the latest news about Samsung’s AI fridge, Microsoft’s Copilot app, and more
Editor’s Note: Welcome to 2024! We are kicking off the year with a fun little experiment with when we send out this weekly newsletter — while we typically send out Lab Weekly on Friday morning (EST), for the next few editions we will be releasing them earlier during the week, so as to deliver our hot takes on CES to your inbox in a timely manner. We hope you enjoy reading them, and please, reach out if you have anything to share!
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Looking Beyond The CES Hype To Focus On True Marketing Innovations
With CES 2024 only a week away, there’s a lot of buzz around what top innovations will be revealed at the world’s premier consumer tech event. For marketers, it’s important to look through the hype and focus on the innovations that produce real brand opportunities. In this Lab original piece for The Drum, our managing director Adam Simon explains the top four much-hyped themes to look out for at this upcoming CES.
In case you missed it…
2023 Trends In Review & Looking Ahead
From generative AI to Barbenheimer, here are the five key trends at the intersection of media, culture, and innovation that we keep writing about all year long
Decoding the Latest AI Products from Google & Meta
With Google and Meta both rolling out new AI products this week, the AI arms race paradoxically enters its hurry-up-and-wait era
2023 Holiday Shopping Trends
Let’s take a look at the retail trends emerging out of this early stage of the holiday season, in particular, how a year’s economic uncertainty and a summer of “funflation” has impacted shopper behavior this year, and what innovative experiential retail may help win over shoppers.
Episode 152: 2023 Trend Recap
In case you missed it — we released our annual year-end trend recap episode right before the holiday break! You can listen to it here and learn about the Lab’s evolving takes on some of the biggest innovation themes of 2023, including the rise of generative AI, the revival of mono-culture, and the emergence of immersive tech.
If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on ApplePodcast. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!
Samsung’s New Smart Fridge Uses AI To Generate Personalized Recipes [The Verge]
While a smart appliance that can create recipes based on the grocery items available is not a new idea, Samsung is taking this to a new level of personalization with the help of generative AI. Ahead of the upcoming CES, the home appliance giant has announced it will be unveiling a new smart fridge that has been upgraded with new AI-enabled features, including creating recipes based on your personal dietary needs and preferences. Users will be able to access the Samsung Food app directly on the fridge, and connect to their Samsung Health profile to receive tailored recipes, therefore tying it to the wider Samsung ecosystem.
In Adam’s CES preview article, he predicted how AI might be taking over CES this year, and warned against the AI hype in unnecessary places. This type of integration, however, does seem to be useful and practical. Say you’re a vegetarian and want to find some plant-based alternatives to some ingredients in an existing recipe — generative AI should be able to help with that while providing a frictionless experience. We’ll keep our eyes out for more similar AI integrations at home from CES.
The important thing for brands here, especially for those in the food and beverage sector, would be how this type of AI integration changes grocery shopping behaviors. Over the past few years, we have seen AI-enabled search and discovery gradually catching on among the early adopters. Instacart, for example, was among the first wave of brands to integrate ChatGPT into their own app to create a Q&A-style grocery shopping assistant. Now, with this type of AI discovery mechanism starting to be directly built into our fridges, it could further spur adoption and bring AI into more smart home appliances. Then, food and beverage brands would likely face a similar set of SEO issues that every brand would encounter as AI continues to alter the online search interface.
Related: Samsung’s new robot vacuum can steam clean your floors [The Verge]; LG developed a two-legged AI-powered robot that can watch your pets for you [Engadget]
Microsoft Copilot’s ChatGPT-Like App Lands On Android [Windows Latest]
Microsoft continues to push ahead in the AI arms race by swiftly bringing the Copilot to mobile, less than two weeks since the web version launched. Landing on Android devices first by essentially rebranding the Bing Chat app, the Copilot app reportedly will be coming to iOS soon as well. Unlike Bing Chat, which focuses on search, the new Copilot app is designed as an alternative to the ChatGPT app by OpenAI, even though they are both powered by the same GPT-4 large language model.
While, at a glance, it might seem odd and even counterproductive for Microsoft to compete directly against OpenAI, considering the Seattle-based company’s hefty investment and close partnerships with the AI startup, a close look would suggest that Microsoft is eager to get its own AI tools out there and secure some consumer adoption. The recent saga regarding OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s firing and rehiring must have been a real test for Microsoft’s relationship with the AI startup. While it benefits Microsoft to see OpenAI grow its market lead, the Windows company is smart to keep its options open. By advancing its own AI offers, Microsoft is strategically positioning itself to maintain a significant presence in the rapidly evolving AI industry, regardless of the future trajectory of its partnership with OpenAI.
Another way of looking at Microsoft’s strategy here is that Microsoft is backing away from directly competing with Google on search. Despite being the first to market, the Bing Chat app didn’t exactly lure a critical mass of consumers away from Google. It seems that, until generative AI is fully integrated into Google’s flagship product and AI search is transformatively better than the default search experience today, the average consumer won’t change their search behaviors. Thus, the rebranding to Copilot now makes sense as it attempts to reach a broader mobile audience.
As AI-powered apps continue to proliferate, talking to AI is becoming more and more commonplace. A recent Salesforce survey found that 49% of its respondents have used generative AI, with 70% of Gen Z being frequent AI users. Innovation-forward marketers can leverage this growing familiarity with AI tools to develop new forms of digital interactions, such as AI-driven chatbots or personalized discovery, in order to enhance customer engagement and create unique brand experiences.
Related: The New York Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft over AI’s use of copyrighted work [New York Times]; Apple explores AI deals with publishers [New York Times]
Aston Martin, Porsche Preview Bespoke Apple CarPlay Interfaces [Car & Driver]
As Apple’s next-gen CarPlay is set to arrive in 2024, the iPhone company has been working with select automakers to make a brand-distinct CarPlay experience. Case in point: Porsche and Aston Martin recently previewed the bespoke CarPlay interface that'll feature in their upcoming models.
It is also worth noting that, as the report calls out, given Porsche's relation to the Volkswagen Group and Aston's to Lucid and Mercedes, it won't be long before those companies come up with their own brand-customized CarPlay interfaces. This approach stands in contrast to GM, which announced last year that it will stop supporting CarPlay in its future EV models.
Automakers and tech companies have been stuck in a tug of war over control of the dashboard experience for as long as connected cars took off, and recent attempts by auto brands to banish support for either Apple CarPlay or Google’s Android Auto have proven unpopular. A 2023 survey by McKinsey found that nearly 50% of car buyers will not consider a vehicle that lacks Apple CarPlay.
In this context, the decision by the two high-end luxury car makers to embrace CarPlay makes a lot of sense — if you can’t beat them, join them! At the end of the day, it is more important to give the consumers what they want than trying to fight over control of the UI and data. Instead, by leaning into it, these car brands now get to customize the CarPlay experience to maintain a strong brand identity through the UI design.
Related: GM stops Chevy Blazer EV sales after early software problems [TechCrunch]; Hyperloop One, the futuristic transportation startup that promised to whisk us through nearly airless tubes at airline speeds, is reportedly shutting down [Bloomberg]
Brands are split on how to utilize generative AI. A new Gartner report found that 20% of brands plan to go ‘acoustic’ amid rising generative AI concerns, leaning into being AI-free as a point of differentiation, a trend that contrasts with most CMOs’ growing investments in the tech field.
Retail media will fuel future growth in search. As one of the fastest-growing ad channels, Insider Intelligence forecasts retail media will account for more new search ad dollars over the next few years. By 2027, it will represent well over a third (37.2%) of the search ad market.
Lego Fortnite, the new survival game spinoff of the Fortnite phenomenon that Epic Games launched on Dec. 7, is off to a flying start, the Verge reports. According to Epic’s official player tracking, Lego Fortnite peaked at an astonishing 2.45 million concurrent players on Saturday, December 9th.
Social media companies collectively made over $11 billion in U.S. advertising revenue from minors last year, according to a recent study from Harvard, AP reports. The researchers say the findings show a need for government regulation of social media.
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to Chelsea Freitas, our VP of Strategy, at chelsea@ipglab.com.
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